A data processing system (external application software linking system) has recently been proposed, in which an image forming apparatus is connected to a server apparatus having various data processing application softwares installed therein via a network and the image forming apparatus is able to cause the server apparatus to execute various kinds of data processing.
Document filing application software is an instance of the above data processing application software. According to the document filing application software, the server apparatus receives the document image data that the image forming apparatus generates by scanning a plurality of documents and stores the document image data in a folder disposed in an HDD (Hard Disc Drive) in the server apparatus.
When an operation condition, i.e., a parameter is set for application software installed in the server apparatus from the image forming apparatus, a dedicated application software for parameter setting (application software for remote control) must be ready to be used from the image forming apparatus.
A method for simplifying parameter setting operation on the image forming apparatus has been proposed. According to the method, a user enters a parameter in a sheet bearing printed spaces for entering various setting items and parameters (set value), and the sheet bearing the parameter entered therein is read by a scanner of the image forming apparatus to cause the image forming apparatus to operate based on the parameter (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-196243).
As described above, when a parameter is set for application software installed in the server apparatus from the image forming apparatus, parameter setting is carried out through parameter setting application software installed in the image forming apparatus. On parameter setting, a parameter setting screen is displayed on a display panel of the image forming apparatus.
A display area of the display panel, however, is so small that parameter setting operation is difficult. On a setting screen for setting a parameter peculiar to application software, reuse of some parameters (e.g., specified values are entered in spaces for some parameters unchanged while spaces for other parameters to be changed are left blank) cannot be set freely.
When the application software is revised into an updated version, the user has to upgrade the parameter setting application software to meet the version upgrade of the application software. Such work is troublesome.
The method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-196243 is the method of improving convenience for the user who sets an operation parameter for the image forming apparatus itself, and is not the method of setting an operation parameter for application software executed by the server apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus via a network.